After six days of no change with Rain since her survey team was ambushed, Noble could not ignore that something had fundamentally shifted.
Rain's emotions were erratic, desperate, and beyond anything Noble had experienced before.
Even at this distance, they were close to overriding the Saint's own feelings. What was happening?
Without looking at a clock, Noble was certain it was the early hours of the morning. If Rain had been home, she would have been sound asleep for hours. However, as far as Noble knew, she was still out in the wilderness.
There was no rest for the weary, and now something had caused Rain to react drastically.
Hearing Noble's outcry and feeling her leave his embrace, Fort bolted from the bed and reached for the drawer of his nightstand.
"What's going on?" Noticing Noble on the ground in the darkness, he abandoned his initial mission and scooped his wife into his arms. "What's wrong?"
Noble looked at him with an unfocused expression. She could barely see his face in the darkness of their room.
"It's Rain…"
Fort's heart leapt into his throat. "Is she…"
"She's alive, but…I don't know. Something is changing. Ah!" Noble grabbed her head.
Her chest felt like it was burning, yet she knew it was not. The sensation was violent and shocking but not unpleasant. In fact, it was utterly euphoric.
Had Noble not been an Awakened, she wasn't sure her heart and mind would have been able to take it. So how was Rain not only feeling it too, but the source of the emotion?
That was something Noble could not fathom.
Fort held his wife close, his face full of questions. He knew better than to ask her. Noble didn't have any answers.
At least not yet, but she intended to find out.
In the safety of her husband's embrace, Noble shut her eyes and allowed her instincts to take over. The strange ethereal world that only she could see took over the darkness. Colors without names flowed in every direction in countless streams, many of them linked to Noble.
She had to ignore them all in favor of one particular connection.
'What in two worlds?!'
The flood of emotion coming from Rain was so intense that despite the monumental distance, it washed over her like a raging torrent.
The sensation of being drowned threatened to overtake Noble just like it had the first time she had discovered this strange world, but she managed to keep herself anchored in the gale.
Studying the scene, Noble's confusion only deepened. She had seen her connection to Rain hundreds of times since discovering it, but it had never once looked like this.
The flow of emotion was not only vast, but the connection was as well. More than that, the quality of it was completely strange.
Noble reached out her hand and dipped her fingers into the invisible stream. It was very strange that she could interact physically with the intangible world, but Noble figured it was the mental command that made her able to affect the connections rather than the physical action.
However, as Noble touched the stream, her fingers immediately tingled with the same fire already burning in her chest. She pulled her hand away quickly. Instinctively, Noble knew that any interference would not only be unwelcome by Rain, but would also mess with a process that Noble fundamentally did not understand.
For Noble was sure that the change her daughter was experiencing was more than just a passing emotion. While the floating Saint had an inkling of what was occurring, she did not dare put that thought into words.
'Come on, Rainy. You've got this!' Noble was exceedingly careful not to let her Kingdom Crafter Attribute activate to intervene.
Her wish was a mundane one, and as much as she willed it to be so, the floating Saint would not try to force anything into existence. Doing so could cause Rain to fail, or worse, kill her if the pressure was too much, so Noble watched in awe as she made sense of the input that she had received.
The flood continued to grow, enveloping more of the world which only Noble could see. It was the open connection between them that was causing the overflow, and Noble leaned against the unending tide. It did not seem to be affecting the physical world around her. Fort was concerned, not euphoric. He held her closely without any sign of stopping.
The only change in his demeanor was when Noble bumped him with her elbow as she pulled back her hand. He flinched, and Noble hoped she hadn't bruised him.
All at once, the burgeoning connection shifted, twisting upon itself in a dizzying display. Instead of expanding, it began to shrink. The coil wrapped and contracted, becoming denser as it did so.
Right when Noble thought it might disappear entirely, the steam released a blinding burst.
"Oh!" Noble lifted her hand to cover her eyes, only to realize they were already closed. There was no shielding herself from the display without releasing her hold on the invisible world.
And Noble wasn't about to do that. When the ethereal dust settled, she took a moment to focus.
When she did, Noble gasped.
Something new had been added to the mix of emotions. It shimmered with an otherworldly glow before slowly fading to an almost imperceptible glimmer.
Noble hadn't seen that particular sight before, but she had felt it coursing through her own body.
It was soul essence.
The overflow from Rain's body had permeated everything about her. Now that it was stabilizing, things would return to normal.
Or rather, a new normal.
If Rain had control of her essence to that degree, it could only mean one thing–the girl's current relief and exultation supported what Noble knew to be true.
"She did it."
"What?" Fort's question prompted Noble to open her eyes.
Her eyes were swirling with the myriad of colors that she had just experienced.
"Rain. She's Awakened." Noble's words were barely audible, but Fort caught them the same as if she had shouted.
He tensed.
"Are you sure?!"
Noble patted his arm gently. "I am certain. She is alive and well…and Awakened."
"How do you know? About that last part, I mean." Fort hadn't felt what she felt, and Noble wasn't sure how to explain.
"You'll just have to trust me, for now. But I felt her Awaken."
"What else can you see? Can you tell her Aspect?" Fort was full of questions.
"I don't know any of that." Noble shook her head. "But whatever has happened this past week in the wilderness has pushed her over the precipice."
"Rain really did it." Fort ran his hand through his hair. "She's the first person to naturally awaken in our history. No one will believe it!"
"Our Rainy is a pioneer." Noble nodded.
She hugged her husband as she thought about the implications.
If Rain could teach others how to replicate her results, the world as they knew it would fundamentally change.
The couple sat together, celebrating. In a dreary world, this was wonderful news.
Rain's excitement finally dwindled, and Noble knew that she had at last found the rest that she sought.
'Sleep well, Rainy. You deserve it.'
As if sensing Rain's relief, Fort heaved a sigh of his own. "What now?"
Noble glanced toward the shutters and the hint of dawn's early light. She smiled softly.
"What else? We wait."